


True North

by MTBF



Category: Marvel 616, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, American Pi - Freeform, De-Hulked Bruce Banner, De-Serumed Steve Rogers, M/M, Mad Mishmash of Marvel MCU and Marvel 616 themes/actors/characters, Marvel 616/MCU Crossover, Multiverse Hi-Jinx, lots of guest stars, star spangled banner
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-19
Updated: 2016-04-12
Packaged: 2018-05-15 01:26:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 15,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5766652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MTBF/pseuds/MTBF
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve Rogers and Bruce Banner are prisoners of circumstance, trapped in a strange new land without access to their powers. Their courage and teamwork are tested as they use their remaining talents and skills to survive. Meanwhile, the Invincible Iron Man leads the charge to rescue them, while simultaneously attempting to prevent yet another world-threatening disaster.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Pyracantha](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pyracantha/gifts).



> This fic is dedicated to Pyracantha. She is a big fanfic reader and for Christmas this year, I gifted her a fanfic of my design to be written for her. 
> 
> Please be gentle, this is my first fic. It's cribbed together incorporating several elements from both the Marvel Cinematic Universe Avengers and the 616 Marvel Comics Universe world. When writing this, my casting call and voice is heavily influenced by Chris Evans as Steve Rogers and Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner. This is important mainly because of the physicality that Ruffalo brings to the role. He's not a 98 pound weaking as Bruce is often pictured. This is important for the story, as you'll see shortly. 
> 
> The rest of the casting call is a bit looser. In my head most of the MCU cast is as expected, but I am not a big fan of Jeremy Renner, so Hawkeye to me is more of a Chris Pine. I equate Hawkeye with Matt Fraction/David Aja's continually bruised Clint and Pine pulls that off well. I don't know why I felt the need to explain that, but there it is.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy the story. It's all very rough, first draft material at this point, so forgive my lack of formatting and general non-proofread errors. Updates to post as soon as they are ready.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (12.21.16): After finishing Chapter 2, did basic spellcheck on both chapters. Updated this one.

The fight ended as so many of those fights ended, with the Hulk smashing something. The green gamma giant's fists sundered apart the titanium housing of the control mechanism, scattering its sensitive internal components to the wind like parade confetti.

Steve was the only one close enough to be in any real danger, but his shield safely deflected the debris.

"The device is disabled," Captain America called over the communications link to the other Avengers that were here in the field with him.

"Disabled like turned off?" replied Tony's voice. "Like with the deactivation sequence I gave you?"

"Not so delicate," Steve replied, surveying the rest of the room. Normally a cold, dark stone room, the side of the castle had been recently renovated by the Hulk's entrance. It was a lot brighter now, and breezier.

"Yeah, I saw an Ultron flying towards the window, so I threw a Hulk at it," chimed in a wry voice.

"Not helping, Barton," Tony replied tersely. "Cap, you need to get out of there..."

Steve was temporarily fixated on watching the Hulk pull the head off the Ultron bot that Hawkeye had sent him after. More specifically, he was aware of the pulsing blue glow that was under Banner's feet, under the pile of scrap metal that he'd so successfully smashed.

"Too late!" Cap said, trying to tuck as much of his body behind his shield as the blue glow erupted into a bubble of blue energy, filling the room and overwhelming his senses.

\--

The Mark LXIX Iron Man armor touched down in the room seconds after the blue flames ceased spilling out of the open hole. A cursory look around confirmed Tony's worst fears.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y., full spectrum analysis. Make it quick, but thorough."

"Anything for you, boss," chimed back the sultry Artificial Intelligence. He made a mental note to look at turning down the sultry a notch or two. Not that Pepper would comment, but he certainly didn't need to give Pepper a reason to comment.

"What's going on, Stark?" Maria Hill's voice was clear, but mirrored Tony's own, full of worry. "I can't find any communication or bioanyalytic data." It was clear that she wanted to hear Tony tell her everything was ok.

"That's not surprising," said Tony. "There's nothing here."

"You mean...?" Hawkeye began, the usual deadpan snark missing from his tone.

"No, I mean, there's nothing here," Tony said again. F.R.I.D.A.Y. was already bringing up the results of scans on the suit's displays that confirmed what he was seeing. Aside from scorch marks on all of the stones, the room was totally bare. No scrapped Utron-Bot, no control mechanism and no bodies.

Steve and Bruce were gone without a trace.

\--

"You okay?"

Steve was not okay. Every inch of his body hurt and felt like it was being smothered.

"What happened?" He knew he was speaking, but even his own voice sounded distant.

"Still trying to figure that out," Bruce said. "The best I can tell you is that we're not in Kansas anymore."

"You don't have to backdate all your references. I've actually caught up on a lot of movies," Steve said, trying to sit up.

"Careful," Bruce said, quickly adding, "Wherever it is we are has affected us both."

Steve felt it almost immediately. His uniform was loose, way too loose. He didn't even need to look. It was like a familiar and dreadful weight had settled back on his chest. It felt like every single day before Dr. Erskine's Super Soldier Serum changed his life.

"It's some sort of radiation, I think," Bruce said. Steve noticed for the first time that his teammate was sifting through parts and pieces of the machinery that had been in the room with them. The room, however, was gone. Instead, they were surrounded by stone of a different kind, natural formed, not crafted. Soft shafts of light from holes in the ceiling made it bright enough for him to see.

"You're the expert on radiation," Steve said, letting his gloves fall off his smaller hands. "I'll take your word for it."

"I put a jumpsuit there for you," Bruce said. "Tony had this... I guess I should call it a fannypack, but that seems terribly wrong... anyway, Tony tucked in some compressed essentials for me, including a couple of jumpsuits.

"They're a form of unstable molecular polymer, which actually sounds worse than it should," Bruce continued. "It just means they stretch to fit."

"Or shrink," Steve said. He struggled to get off his familiar red, white and blue chest armor, that had seemed so much heavier now than when he put on earlier today. But he knew it wasn't the armor.

Thankfully, the undersuit was more forgiving. Although large, it shrunk somewhat and was not terribly oversized. He rolled up the sleeves before removing the rest of his outfit, comically too large for his slight waist and short, thin legs. His briefs were also more than roomy, but he was hoping that the jumpsuit would fix that issue. He stood up, keeping the waistband cinched with one hand to keep it from falling off.

"Is this what it feels like?" Steve asked. He'd noticed Bruce stealing a glance or two, but that wasn't what was making him feel awkward.

"Do you feel exposed? Raw? Vulnerable? And most of all angry that you've done something terribly wrong, but have to wait until you can find a shirt and a pair of shoes before you can slink into the nearest sports bar, and hope you don't get ejected while waiting for a blistering statement from your ex-fiance's father to proceed the footage of the wreckage you've caused?" There was more than just a bit of recrimination in Bruce's statement. He'd also stopped looking in Steve's direction.

"Probably just those first couple of things," Steve said, trying to lighten the mood. He'd fit the bottom half of the jumpsuit on. The design was modular, allowing the pants and shirt to be separated and secured individually. It did a good job of making him feel slightly less vulnerable, despite the fact that it clung just a bit too tight.

He thought shoes were going to be a problem, but was able to cannibalize part of his armor for a way to bulk up his calves enough that he could wear his boots, though they were ridiculously oversized even still. Better that than daring to go barefoot.

There was a moment while he was pulling his laces tight that he let worry creep into his thoughts, fear of being trapped and powerless, but he let them flow past him. There was no time for that right now. Though physically challenged at this size, his mind was as sharp as ever, and it was already sizing up the situation. Right now they needed information.

"Have you looked around?" Steve asked, looping his belt over one shoulder like a bandolier. There were a couple of things in it that would be helpful, he was sure. The bigger problem would be trying to find a way to carry his shield without it being completely awkward.

"No," Bruce replied. "I thought I'd see what was left undamag... well, less damaged than everything else. Mainly I was just waiting for you to wake up."

"Well, I'm awake now," Steve said confidently. He had played around with the straps of his shield until he found a way to keep it against the whole of his arm rather than just where it would have rested on his forearm. Although light enough to be carried, it was still ungainly at his current size. "Let's see what's outside."

"I think I'd probably be better off here," Bruce said, clearing trying to withdraw from the conversation. Steve had seen this before, after a Code: Green had gone awry and the Hulk had caused more collateral damage than expected.

"No, you're with me," Steve replied. He needed Bruce to be engaged in the process if they were to have the best chance of surviving. "We need to assess the area and come up with a plan of action. More specifically, you need to step away from that. We'll come back to it only if we need to."

Bruce paused for a moment, as if he was going to argue, but instead he just shrugged his shoulders and stood up. He was wearing the matching jumpsuit, which was filled out more than Steve could manage. He thought it ironic that he never really considered Bruce imposing, especially compared to the "other guy", but he certainly was no 98 pound weakling. That gave him a surprising sense of reassurance given the circumstances.

The cave had a single mouth with a subtle breeze, enough to convince Steve it was the right way to go. They walked along quietly, watching the walls of the cave come into clearer view as the tunnel brightened, eventually revealing a bright and open mouth after a few hundred feet.

The air that rushed towards them was warmer and drier than in cave. Steve motioned for Bruce to fall a few steps behind as he dropped to a crouch, sneaking as best he could the last few feet to the opening.

The cave was positioned just above a canopy of lush green forest, alive with the chatter of natural sounds. Steve began to take as much of it in as he could, while signalling Bruce that it was ok to move up to join him.

"Any idea where we are?" Dr. Banner asked.

"I'm pretty sure where we aren't," Steve said, pointing up at the twin moons in the champagne colored sky.

"Oh," Bruce said. "That's definitely not good."

\--

"There's a lot of space we haven't covered yet, Tony, so keep that in mind when I tell you we haven't found anything yet."

"Who have you talked to, Peter?" Tony fidgeted with a coffee cup on the edge of his desk. Holographic screens with various data crawls and search algorithms splayed out in a 180 degree arc over the desk. In the middle of all of those was the face of Peter Quill, looking like he had been called to the Principal's Office.

"The Nova Corps, the Shi'ar, loyal elements inside both the Kree and Skrull Empires and some free traders that hang out in Knowwhere. It's still early and there's a lot territory we haven't covered. Kind of makes me jealous you just have the one planet to watch over. Ever want to trade out for a long weekend or something, you let me know," Starlord said.

"Find me Cap and Banner and I'll look at making that work," Tony said, his mind already half distracted on what to do next. "No Rocket though. Not after what he did with..."

"You think I can't hear you?" piped in a rough voice from over Peter's shoulder. "I know that's you, Stark!"

"Uh... what's that? Space static! We're losing you, Earth!" Peter interjected loudly before killing the transmission altogether.

"Nothing from the Guardians?" Tony had already replaced the communication screen with a 3D rendering of some of the equipment he'd scanned from the castle. He didn't need to turn around to place the voice, but he did and got up from the chair. He'd been sitting too long.

"No, nothing yet, Carol," Tony told Captain Marvel, who had brought in a fresh cup of coffee for him. He hadn't even realized the old one had turned cold. He'd only had the one sip from when he first set it down.

"You need to take a break," Carol said, setting the coffee down. "Even pilots shift down during long flights. If you won't let me take over for you, let someone."

"I took something. I probably won't sleep for another 15 hours or so," Tony said. "If we haven't found them by then, I promise I'll take a nap."

"Cap and Bruce are big boys," Carol said. "They can take care of themselves."

"I'm not worried about them surviving. I'm worried about making sure we're the first one that finds them," Tony said.

"Fair enough," Carol replied. "What do we know?"

"Practically nothing. I've taken apart a few of the other control consoles at Ultron's last hidey hole, but none of them appear to do what we saw on site. Certainly nothing like the energy signature I was able to grab as I was flying in." Tony gestured and tapped at a few of the smaller windows, enlarging them for Carol's benefit.

"What am I looking at?"

"Not sure, but I sent copies of the readout to Reed, T'Challa, Hank and Henry McCoy. Fury volunteered some S.H.I.E.L.D. eggheads, but I declined. I was tempted to send a copy to Doom, just to allow him bragging rights to figure it out before the rest of us."

"But you didn't," Carol said sternly, handing Tony the fresh cup of coffee.

"I said 'tempted,' not 'foolish.' If this somehow leads us to Steve and Bruce, I want to make sure the information is in trustworthy hands," Tony said, before taking a sip of his drink. "Not enough Irish in this coffee."

"But regardless of who you sent the data to, the word is out, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Tony said. "Ultron blasted out plenty of messages over the internet claiming that he'd killed Captain America and the Hulk."

"Which means we can assume we're not going to be the only people looking for bodies."

"I'd prefer that you didn't call them 'bodies,'" Tony snarked.

\--

"Why don't we want to stay in the cave again?" Bruce slumped down to the ground, perspiring heavily. He'd been hauling vines and branches for the last couple of hours.

"Not the safest place for us," Steve said, winding some of the thinner vines together into a braided rope. "Worst case scenario we were either meant to be sent here or there's at least a way to track that equipment, so we should assume Ultron would be the first one able to find it, which means we don't want to be there when he shows up."

"But what if it's not Ultron?" Bruce asked, taking a long drink from the collapsable water bottle that had been in his fanny pack.

"That's why we're building a shelter with a good view of the cave, but out of sight of casual observers," Steve said. His fingers were tired and blistered, but he kept working while he could. There wasn't much daylight left as far as he could tell, so he was trying to make the most of it.

They had made a small sweep of the area underneath the cave's entrance. Luckily it had proved to be mostly deserted and rich with essential survival necessities, including a fresh spring on the mountainside few hundred feet away that had collected into a bathtub sized depression.before running off into a natural drain. They'd filled up Bruce's bottle from there.

The vines were pliable when cut, but remains on the ground suggested they'd firm up after a while, making them ideal for building, as long as they were quick about it. The immediate valley showed no signs of large life, which was an immediate relief, but a possible problem later on. Meat was the quickest, easiest source of protein available, and without creatures, there was no meat.

But that was a problem for tomorrow, Steve reassured himself, twisting another coil around the support pole to keep the shelter properly supported. It was a crude sort of lean-to, but it would suffice for the night. Based on the current temperature and the foliage, Steve assumed it wouldn't get too cold tonight, because he didn't want to risk a fire yet.

"You tired?" Cap asked.

"Exhausted," Bruce confessed. "Not just from the labor. Mentally as well."

"Certainly this isn't the craziest thing that's ever happened to you."

"Not that I can recall. Usually when it's really bad, I'm mostly out of it and it's the other guy's problem," said Bruce, who splashed a bit of water in his hand to slap against the back of his neck.

"How long?"

"The longest stretch I can calculate was at least a month. I was doing a favor for Stephen Strange... well, he got the Hulk to do a favor for him, I should say. The next thing I know, I was waking up in his house and a month had gone by. Strange told me I'd almost been lost forever on an 'interdimensional crossroads,'" Bruce said. "I like the man, but I'm a bit wary to answer my phone when he calls these days."

"Not very fond of magic," Steve said, accepting the water bottle from Bruce. "I actually got turned into a werewolf once because of it."

"That's..." Bruce struggled for a way to articulate his brain's image of a star-spangled werewolf. Words failed him, though.

"Don't think too hard about it," Steve said with a chuckle. "I don't."

Bruce looked around. Steve saw him fix on the setting sun crawling behind the walls of the valley.

"Hey," Steve said, pulling Banner's attention back to him. "I need you to understand what's going on. We don't know our location, but we're not in dire straits yet. We focus on what's important and we work together and we'll make it out of this ok. You hear me in there, Doctor?"

"I hear you," Bruce replied. "It's just..."

"Just what?" Steve could tell he was conflicted.

"It's just in situations like this before, it was always kind of a relief to know the other guy was there as backup. Like no matter how bad things got, he'd be able to punch his way out of the problem," Bruce said. "I never thought I'd say this, but I'm kind of frightened to think he may be gone."

"I understand that," Steve confessed. "But right now, from where I stand, you're still the best muscle on this team and I know I can trust you to do your best. He may be able to lift a tank, Bruce, but I'd much rather be stuck in this foxhole with you right now."

Steve watched Bruce take the compliment to heart and watched some of the fatigue lift from his face.

They split one of the three protein bars in Bruce's Stark-tech fanny pack and settled in for the evening.

\--

"What's your assessment, Dr. Banner?"

"Well, the stars were clear last night and I saw no familiar constellations. So, assuming we're still in the same dimension, we're not in our solar system. This doesn't rule out being on a parallel Earth that had different astronomical development or being moved forward or backwards in time by a hundred thousand years or so, which would account distortion of view of what we're used to seeing. But I'm no astronomer, so I don't know if I would use my casual observation as the basis of any concrete evidence on determining where we are," Bruce said.

"Well, the air is breathable, the water is drinkable and I can only assume that means with a bit of exploration we'll find something we can eat as well. We'll just have to be careful," Steve said. "Right now we focus on staying alert and alive. I think we both know Tony well enough to assume he's already putting all of his resources into finding a way to get us back home. Let's just make sure we're in good condition to catch that lifeline when he throws it to us."

"I'd still like to take another look at that equipment, though. If there's anything up there that could be of use..." Bruce said, letting his sentence trail off, but leaving the meaning clear.

"Ok. I won't argue with that, but it can't be our top priority for the moment," Steve replied calmly. "We need to see what else we're sharing the area with and secure some food."

"What? You don't want to ration off protein bars for the next few days? They only vaguely taste like sawdust mixed with chocolate."

"Dr. Banner, that almost sounded like a joke," Steve replied wryly.

"Probably a side effect of the dimensional, spatial or chronal displacement," Bruce replied. Steve chuckled and Bruce joined him.

"Okay. Let's start naming some landmarks and we'll do some orienteering and see if my compass works consistently here," Steve said.

"Where to, first?" Bruce asked.

"Let's walk in the direction of the cave, at least to refil our water. Then maybe towards the rising sun. Hopefully that should always be a constant direction," Steve said.

"As long as basic astrophysics hold true," Bruce responded.

The two began walking, retracing the almost familiar path back to the spring they had been using for fresh water. The whole while, Steve kept glancing at his compass. At the spring, they filled up the water bottle and then each took a sip from the rock directly.

"Looks like the compass is holding steady. Let's track down towards the open end of the valley, see if we can stay to the left side of that massive rock up there so as to keep out bearings," Steve said, pointing what should (assuming the compass was correct), be almost directly south of them.

"Let's call that 'Tony's Ego,'" Bruce said. Steve tried to suppress a smile. Bruce immediately added, "It's just easier to remember than 'Big Rock number one."

"Fair enough," Steve replied. "We'll stay west of Tony's Ego and head for the valley opening. You have any other names ready for landmarks?"

"I'm sure it won't be difficult to come up with," Bruce replied, falling in just behind Steve as the two of them set off. The forest was more temperate than tropical, though the trees didn't seem to completely represent those they were familiar with on Earth. They did, however, not have a dense canopy, allowing them to be able to track the sun across the sky. It hadn't quite reached it's apex before Bruce called them to a stop.

"Need a break?" Steve asked, feeling completely exhausted himself.

"No, but you need a rest," Bruce replied.

"I'm fine," Steve lied.

"And if you saw me looking like you, would you let me go on?"

"Ok, Doctor, fair enough," Steve said. He was foolish thinking that he could press himself hard in his current condition. All of his survival training warned him about getting fatigued. That put them both at risk should they run into something that required action. He directed them over to a spot of shade underneath a roughly barked tree.

Bruce started to reach for one of their remaining rations when Steve waved him off.

"Just water for now. Let's save it until at least mid-day or a bit after," Steve said. "I'm really hoping we run into some animals, to see what they find edible. It could make all the difference in our long-term survival."

Bruce acknowledged it with a nod of his head. The two of them drank water in peace. After a moment, Steve cocked his head to one side. Bruce began to speak, but Steve rested a finger across his lips, asking for silence.

A few seconds later, the trees stirred slightly, a breeze from the north side of the valley rustled them gently. More importantly, however, a flight of winged creatures, moving faster than they could determine, lifted from the branches and dashed off to the south. It was enough to make Steve smile.

"We're not alone after all," Bruce said.

"C'mon," Steve said. "Let's go chase some wild geese. Or whatever those were."

\--

Tony woke up to the sight of a tiny flashing blue light. It was the message signal on his closest command console.

"Lights up!" Tony said in haste, cursing as the lights snapped to full brightness. "OW! Lights 50% up only!"

The lights toned themselves down as Tony slid out of bed and made his way over to the desk in the side office of his workshop, a crash space just off of the main room where he could grab a couple of hours sleep when it was entirely necessary.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y, prioritize the messages and then tell me who they are from," Tony said.

"Message one..."

"Wait a minute," Tony interrupted. "Why didn't you wake me up when these calls came in?"

"Because unlike you, I'm smart enough not argue with your girlfriend," the AI responded coyly.

"When was Pepper here?"

"Ms. Potts was here exactly..."

"You know what? Never mind. Get back to the first request," Tony said, bringing up the full display and pressing the 3D command to start cycling a fresh pot of coffee from the laboratory's autokitchen.

"Three priority messages. The first is an apology from Dr. McCoy. Do you want to hear the whole message?"

"Paraphrase it," Tony said.

"He is busy at the moment and has not had time to look at the data," F.R.I.D.A.Y. said smoothly.

"The next two?"

"Dr. Richards and Dr. Pym with news on your request."

"Reed first," Tony replied.

Instantly, the face of Reed Richards, leader of the Fantastic Four, appeared in Tony's display. He was turned slightly to the side.

"Yes, Franklin, tell your mother I'll be right there," Reed spoke to someone offscreen before turning face the display square on. "Oh, yes, Tony. I've looked at the energy signature you sent me. I'm sure you did your best trying to gather as much data as possible..."

"Oh, that doesn't sound condescending at all, Reed," Tony commented to the recording.

"...but the most I've been able to determine from it is that it has similar characteristics to the ambient radiation common from running my dimensional portal technology. It's certainly not a complete match, but I will continue to run some more tests here in a bit to see if I can gain any further insight on this for you. Please rest assured that all of the resources here at the Baxter Building are at your disposal. I'll contact you again shortly," Reed said before ending the message.

"And Hank's message?" Tony asked. Reed's face disappeared and was replaced by that of the bespeckled, gray haired Hank Pym.

"I know you and I aren't on the best of terms, Tony, but I took a look at what you sent me," Hank said before turning his eyes down to look at a series of printouts on a clipboard.

"A lot of these readouts make a vague amount of sense to me, but I was really struck by a few of these wavepatterns here," Hank said, tapping on the clipboard.

"I can't see what you're talking about, Hank," Tony said to the recording.

"If you notice the jump in this frequency range here," Dr. Pym continued.

"Still can't see anything," Tony said aloud.

"You might actually just discount it as an error in the data, but it happens again," Tony heard Hank flip through a couple of the readout pages and rubbed his face in exasperation, "here and here. It's too precise to be an error."

"Annnnd....?" Tony asked, hoping Hank would get to the point.

"Well, I can't vouch for any of the rest of it, but that looks like Pym Particle decay. It's very brief, but I'd almost guarantee it. The rest of it I'm unsure about," Hank said, finally looking up from the printouts. "I've got some relevant information that I can send over to you..."

"Please just tell me you already sent it," Tony said aloud.

"...I was going to mail it, but I'll ask Scott to drop it by later this afternoon. It's a few white paper documents I had written up for a lecture once. It should be enough to show you what I mean," Hank said.

"Please shut that off, F.R.I.D.A.Y.," said Tony. "And tell the front desk to expect a package from Scott Lang."

"It's already downstairs," F.R.I.D.A.Y. replied.

"How long was I out?"

"You were out..."

"Better not tell me," Tony interrupted, "I'm already angry enough."

"Do you wish to hear the non-relative messages?"

"No. I'll go through them later."

"Would you like to hear from T'Challa?" F.R.I.D.A.Y. asked.

"And how does that not count as a relative message?" Tony asked sarcastically.

"Because he's waiting for you in your lab."

\--

Steve pulled away the binoculars and rubbed his eyes. He and Bruce had been at the end of the valley, observing for the last hour or so. Bruce's preliminary calculations estimated that the planet had about a twenty hour rotation cycle, meaning both the day and the night would be a bit shorter than they were used to. It was interesting, but still the least of their concerns.

"Well, the herd hasn't moved," Steve reported. About five hundred yards out of the valley's mouth was a heard of roughly two dozen quadruped animals that could best be described as a cross between a pig and a hippo, covered with shaggy fur. They were lazily grazing on grasses and shrubbery in the grasslands that seemed to dominate the foothills ahead of them. Despite the urgency, the entire afternoon had been surprisingly relaxing. The only real debate had been on what to call the creatures.

"The hippig herd, you mean?" Bruce asked.

"That still sounds awkward, but yes, the hippig heard," Steve replied.

"Do we have a next move?" Bruce asked.

"I'd like to see if they move on. There's no immediate water source here, so I'm curious if they will move to a known location or migrate on at some point to find one," Steve said. "If they move, I'd like to collect some of the fruits on those bushes down there to see if they are edible to us." Bruce nodded.

"That sounds reasonable," Banner said. "I don't suppose trying to catch one of those things is a consideration is it?"

"Hungry, Doctor?" Steve asked with a knowing smile.

"Hungry enough, but not foolish. I never thought I'd hear myself say this out loud, but I kind of wish Clint was here."

"I never thought I'd hear you say that either, though his skill would certainly be useful in a situation like this," Steve admitted, before adding, "though I wonder if the radiation would have affected him as well."

"Not that we could be this lucky, but maybe it would have made him mute... temporarily, of course," appended Bruce quickly.

"Probably wouldn't be a terrible loss if it was permanent," Steve said. He caught Bruce smile slightly. They sat in silence for a while and Steve found himself staring through the binoculars again, watching the presumed alpha strut around the perimeter of his herd. It was slightly larger than the rest, and definitely more alert.

"How much of that you think is an act?" Bruce asked. For a second, Steve assumed he had been talking about the animal, but then realized he was still chewing on Hawkeye's personality. He set the binoculars down.

"You mean his reckless bravado? What makes you assume it's an act?"

"Given my background, you'll have to forgive me if I don't assume most people are in the business of hiding something," Bruce confessed.

"You think that everyone is hiding their own kind of Hulk?"

"Oh, he's not hidden," Bruce confessed. "He's the most honest and open expression of my anger, albeit destructive and dangerous on perhaps a global scale. In other words, he's the big green truth. I hide other things. I think we all do."

"You know in saying that, you imply depth of character to our resident smart-ass archer," Steve said, taking the easy jab.

"Not everyone is the same level of deep. Clint might be the shallow end of the pool," Bruce jabbed back, before shrugging his shoulders, "Then again, maybe he's deeper than either of us give him credit for."

"Well, if I had to guess, his level of reckless disregard is directly proportional to his desire to feel like he's contributing equally to a team that boasts the title of 'World's Mightiest Heroes.' So if it's hiding anything, I'd guess it's a bit of insecurity that he's up to the challenge," Steve said. "I can understand that, though I think it's misplaced. He's certainly far more capable than I was when I tried to join the Army."

"Slightly different circumstances, don't you think?"

"Is it an unfair comparison? Maybe. But the playing field is never level, Doctor Banner," Steve said. "Look at us now, between a Hulk and a Captain America on this world, the guy shooting pointy sticks would probably be the most useful."

"Okay, okay, point taken," Bruce admitted, holding up his hands in mock surrender. He let his attention wander to the open land ahead of them, to the herd of hippigs still casually grazing. The sun had started to dip lower in the sky. He estimated they only had a few hours left before the sun went down. If they stayed in the valley, they'd have less light faster. Steve had gone back to checking things through his binoculars and Bruce made some casual observations in his head.

Even without the benefits of his super soldier enhancements, he still had a keen mind, an unwavering confidence and a strong countenance. More than any of that, though, Bruce admired his determination. There was no question to him that they would survive and be rescued, it was only a matter of discovering the best way to make that happen. He was not used to such honest positivity. Their stay here had not been long, but he felt reassured it would be bearable as long as they stayed together.

"Bruce." Steve motioned him forward, handing the binoculars over to him. "What do you make of that?"

Bruce could tell something was going on in the distance, but needed the binoculars to make out the details. The hippigs were moving, but not randomly. Bruce noticed around the fringes of the herd the first of several humanoid creatures, riding what appeared to be best described as fox-like mounts that were roughly half the size of the hippigs.

"I see staves, clothes, basic riding gear," Bruce said. "I'm no xeno-anthropologist, but I would assume that means they're civilized to some degree." Their skin tone appeared a dusty yellow-orange in color, and each of them had braided heads of hair bound with ties and ornamented with colorful decorations of some sort. There were only three of them, but they appeared to be talking to one another and using hand gestures to agree on the best way to steer the herd of hippigs.

"So the herd is domesticated to some degree," Steve said. "Which means they are probably taking them back 'home' for the evening."

"Do we follow them?" Bruce asked.

"It's tempting," Steve replied, "but I'd rather not risk it in the dark. Not in our current condition. Odds are we couldn't keep up with them anyway."

"I'm not going to make a comment about how Hawkeye would have already sprinted over there to greet them," Bruce said.

"Probably for the best," said Steve, walking away from the mouth of the valley. "C'mon Doctor. We have another protein bar to split."

The walk back to the camp was quicker than both of them expected. Steve's compass remained faithful and the two were back just before it became too dark to see.

"Think we can risk a fire tonight?" Bruce asked, watching Steve already pull from the pile of kindling he'd collected from the other day.

"I think so," Steve said, stacking things up in the firepit before taking some matches from his utility bandolier and striking one ablaze. He set it carefully in the pile of shavings and tiny twigs, watching as the first few of them catch the fire. Before long, it was no longer a fragile thing, but a self-sustaining blaze, throwing off a decent amount of heat.

They ate their protein bar halves quietly, listening to the crack and pop of the wood burning in the fire. They passed the water container back and forth, slowly draining it as they tried to make their dinner last as long as possible.

"You know, I could probably make a decent coffee maker out of the junk left over in the cave," Bruce said.

"But no coffee," Steve replied.

"That's the most depressing part," Bruce chuckled.

"At least you're not Stark," Steve said. "I'm surprised the man doesn't have an espresso machine built into all of his suits."

"Tony Starkbucks," Bruce joked as the fire settled down for the night.

\--

"Make it a triple shot latte, but hold the foam," Tony said before quickly adding, "and the milk. Just the triple shot. I suppose that doesn't qualify as a latte anymore, does it?"

"Right away, boss," F.R.I.D.A.Y. chimed in over the workshop speakers. Tony was already working on a conventional cup of coffee, but he needed something more potent to wrap his head around what T'Challa had brought with him.

"Did you want anything?" Tony asked.

"No, Tony, I am fine, thank you," replied King T'Challa of Wakanda, also the Avenger known as the Black Panther.

"I figured you were too busy at the U.N. to stop by. A courier would have been fine, or secured Avengers email."

"I was shocked by the information you supplied me."

"Shocked as in alarmed or frightened? Because I'm more like shocked as in frustrated," Tony said. Panther motioned to the large holographic terminal on the closest desk.

"May I?" Tony nodded and T'Challa lifted up the representational keyboard to bring up a command shell. Tony watched him securely connect to an outside computer address.

"You do realize I log my traffic in here, don't you?"

"I assume everything is logged everywhere. Which is why the connection to this secured filesite is secured by two different ciphers based on an old Wakandan folktale. I run that expression through an algorithm in my head that changes depending on the time and date. Each password is unique and then discarded," T'Challa replied calmly while browsing the opened file directory.

"So I'm assuming you don't keep that on a sticky note stuck to your monitor, then?"

"Underneath my keyboard."

"Clearly the superior hiding place," Tony agreed, watching as the screens in front of them lit up with several different charts and graphs. "That's mine on the left."

"Yes, and in the middle is a charted analysis of a vibranium sample when exposed to several different external forces," T'Challa said. "We start with radiant light on the far left and worth through the invisible frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum, then move on to radiant heat, electricity, electromagnetism and so on before we move into more exotic sources."

"Define exotic," Tony said.

"Who else have you shown this to, Tony?" T'Challa asked abruptly.

"Reed... Hank Pym..." Tony was looking closer at the right side of the chart. "I sent some to Henry McCoy, but haven't heard..." Tony trailed off as something caught his eye, something familiar.

"This section here looks very much like the data I sent you, but it's missing... no it's not, it's just over here..." Tony touched another section of T'Challa's display.

"If you have sent this to them, they your frustration probably stems from the fact that each of them has spoken to you claiming it touches on some aspect of their research, but in an unfamiliar way."

"That's almost exactly what they said," Tony replied, now studying T'Challa's face more than the readouts.

"What is all this?"

"This was research stolen from Wakanda roughly six months ago."

"I thought you said your filesite was secured," Tony chided.

"It was a physical robbery. Not only did the thieves get away with a more comprehensive collection of this research, but they also killed a brilliant man, a citizen of Wakanda and a friend of my family," T'Challa said solemnly. "I came to you personally, because I believe this accident is directly related to the theft of that information. I must find those responsible."

"Are you telling me that Ultron sent thieves into Wakanda for this technology?"

"I do not think that Ultron orchestrated the theft, no. But I do think he benefitted from it. I think he is but one of many attempting to exploit this research," said T'Challa.

"What is this research for?"

"It's ultimate purpose was to create a method to detect Vibranium wherever it was located," T'Challa said.

"I thought for the most part you knew where all the Vibranium was. Locked up safely in your country," Tony said.

"Everywhere, Tony. Not just here on Earth," T'Challa said. "Every dimension, every microuniverse, every macrouniverse, every chronal juncture, every mystic limbo... Everywhere."

"Why would you do that?" Tony asked. "That sounds like something I would do."

"I'm trying to stay one step ahead. To prevent someone like the Mad Thinker from discovering a mountain of Vibranium in a neighboring dimension and bringing it here," T'Challa said, before Tony noticed a glimmer of regret in his eyes. "It was supposed to prevent a disaster."

"And now, instead of playing Vibranium cop for the multiverse," Tony reasoned,"you might have inadvertently handed the keys to the Vibranium candy store over to Ultron and who knows who else."

"Yes."

"I think we're going to need more Avengers," said Tony.


	2. Chapter 2: Take A Chance...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve and Bruce take a bold step forward. Tony leads the Avengers on a quest to track down resources needed to find their missing friends. This chapter is technically incomplete, but I wanted to add it today (4.12.16) for special reasons. (4.28.16): Small update today, but still not finished. (12.21.16): Chapter 2 finished. Did a quick spellcheck for both chapters as well. Upward and onward!

"I think it's time we met the neighbors," Steve said, sliding down from his perch on the rock slope.

Bruce had been gathering the berries that they'd seen the flying creatures eat. The assumption was they were birds of some sort, even though they had long antennae on their heads. This was common on insects back home, and oddly not out of place here, given some of the other things they'd seen. Whenever they were approached too closely, the long stalks would twitch and straighten prompting the birds to launch into the air, flying away to some remote shelf somewhere in the valley cliffs.

The berries had been a welcome find and they were not overly sweet, either, making them a decent staple alongside the nuts they'd discovered in another location. They'd stumbled across the shells outside the den of what they assumed was a small rodent. It hadn't taken them long to match them to a nearby tree. The nuts tasted mostly like dirt, but mixing them with the berries had helped.

Even still, nuts and berries were only enough to put off the inevitable for a few days. If they were going to have any sort of sustainable diet here, they'd have to leave the valley. Leaving the valley meant they'd probably have to face the hippig herders.

"Today's the day, then?" Bruce asked. He rubbed at the stubble on his face, anxious for a decent shave. Steve didn't seem to have that problem, and Bruce sort of envied him for that.

"We can't wait too much longer," Steve said. "We're going to be loosing muscle mass if we don't get some legitimate protein. I know you have a bit to spare right now, but I certainly don't."

"You're afraid it might come to a fight."

"I'm afraid that if it does come to a fight, we need to be ready and in the best shape we can be. Waiting around isn't going to help with that," Steve said, trying to find the a comfortable grip on his shield once again. It had been an ongoing struggle, and not an overly successful one at that.

"Okay," Bruce said. "I'm ready when you are." Handing over half of what he'd harvested, the two men had a quick bite and drink from the water bottle before heading towards the mouth of the valley.

The foliage began to thin, trees becoming less densely packed, giving way to more shrubs and tall grasses. Bruce began to feel a bit anxious as their cover slipped away from them, leaving them exposed as they transitioned rather abruptly from mountainous terrain to gentle foothills, much more flat than Bruce had expected them to be. Ahead of them by several hundred yards, was the grazing herd of hippigs. The fox-riders were not there, it was a bit early for them to arrive, but Steve and Bruce had agreed that they would need to be there in advance of them. Trying to run up at the end of the day when the herd was collected was most likely be misinterpreted as hostile. Being there for the riders to see as they approached would be much less of a shock. That was the working theory at least.

"I'm still nervous," Bruce said after walking in relative silence for some time.

"You have every right to be," Steve said. "You'd certainly be in good company."

"You're nervous too? You hide it well," Bruce said.

"Growing up like this, back in Brooklyn during the Depression, you had to have pretty thick skin. Even if you got beat down three times a day, you had to go into the next fight talking like you would win."

"Just talking?" asked Bruce.

"Well, part of it was hoping that you'd convince yourself that it was true," Steve confessed. "And if you convinced yourself well enough, it just might work out that way."

"I'm familiar with how that cognitive disconnect works," Bruce said. "I also am familiar with what happens with the repressed feelings as well."

"Yeah, well, I try to get that out as much as possible. I go through a lot of heavy bags," he explained.

"That's a bit easier for you I wager. When you express your rage, they don't typically call out the Army on you, do they?"

"There has to be other heathy outlets for your frustration, Doctor. I find art helps me immensely," Steve said.

"Being in the lab. Reading. These things help, but it's more of a distraction, not really an outlet."

"Not like physical exertion, though. Fighting, exercise, sex."

"Those things aren't really much of an option for me," Bruce said. "Fighting leads to anger leads to... you know. Exercise is just tiring. Sex... well, I can't say it won't work, but it's hard trying to negotiate that transaction while delicately working in the fact that if I get too excited things might go ...horribly, horribly wrong."

Steve stopped walking for a moment.

"Even when it's love?" Steve asked.

"Love... is an emotion," Bruce said, continuing his pace. "It can be exciting, yes, but it can also be calm, patient, serene. Sex is an activity. Hormones racing, elevated heart rate and physical exertion are all things which do not contribute to an atmosphere of safety when it comes to me. It's safer to stick to love than mix it with sex and call it love."

"That's a very clinical way to look at it," Steve said, resuming his stride behind Bruce for the few moments before catching up with him. Even though he was at a longer gait, Steve was a fast walker, a skill he'd honed in his earlier years. They kept that pace, and their silence for a while, making a good distance towards the herd as the sun dipped lower in the sky.

"I don't hate the concepts, you know," Bruce said. "Love and sex. I have a fondness for them."

"I wasn't trying to imply anything," Steve said.

"I know, but sometimes people assume because of the way I look at things that I'm some sort of emotionless science robot," Bruce said, "immune to love and lust."

"Didn't we fight Emotionless Science Robot last week in New Jersey?" Steve joked. "As I recall, he had a crush on the Vision, so he wasn't really immune either, despite the name."

"C'mon now, I'm trying to come clean," Bruce replied, slightly exasperated. "It's difficult for me."

"One of those things you hide." Steve's voice was more serious this time, sympathetic.

"Yeah," Bruce said. "One of those things." He seemed sad to admit it, casting his eyes to the ground at his feet.

"If it makes you feel any better, you're not the only one that has a problem with relationships," Steve said. "That seems to be a fundamental part of being human, regardless of who you are or where you're from."

"Even you?" Bruce asked, probably more sarcastically than he intended. "I doubt there's a woman alive that'd turn you down."

"Well, it's a bit more complicated than that," Steve said.

"How is it more complicated?" Bruce asked, genuinely interested. Steve didn't answer immediately. Instead, he went through several different thoughtful or pained facial expressions, mouth slightly agape, working through a response in his head that never quite made it to his lips.

"Look," he finally said, pointing off in the direction they were walking. "Looks like our neighbors are here a bit early."

Bruce caught sight of the fox riders headed in their direction, one of them stopping at the herd that was still a good fifty yards or more in the distance, the other two moving forward at a fast trot towards them.

"I guess it's too late to back out, now," Bruce said.

"Just be calm and we'll be fine," Steve said, sounding fully convinced of his own words. Bruce had nowhere near the level of confidence that Steve seemed to have, but he stood his ground. He wasn't planning on leaving his teammate's side.

The fox riders trotted closer, each of them holding a staff in one hand, almost like a mounted knight's lance, the other hand guiding the foxes. They seemed alert and aware of the two of them, one of them barking out an alien language as soon as they were in shouting distance. The other one scanned about them, looking for anyone or anything else that may have been hiding in the landscape around them.

The foxes split up, one of them breaking to their left, the other to their right, each one circling the two Avengers in oppositional orbits. They didn't appear to be overly hostile, but the one that had been yelling at them continued to do so, motioning to them with his staff, as if he was goading them to speak up.

"We are not here to fight," Steve said aloud, holding both of his hands up at chest height, palms facing out, a relaxed motion of surrender. Bruce followed suit, but said nothing.

The fox rider stopped speaking after that, looking directly at the other one for a minute.

"We wish only to talk," Steve said calmly. The fox rider that had been speaking to them, pulled his mount to a halt in front of them.

"Ok," said the orange skinned rider in perfectly clear, if somewhat accented English. Much to Steve and Bruce's surprise, he added: "What did you want to talk about?"

\--

"Alright War Machine, give me an update."

"There are a lot of robots here!" replied Colonel James Rhodes as his armor's onboard threat response computer had already sent another barrage of mini-gun rounds towards an Ultron Sentry that had dropped into position directly behind his flight path. Shredded by the anti-armor ordinance, the Sentry was now bound for the ground, no longer a problem.

"Well, I didn't expect Utron decided to fill the stolen Helicarrier with tourists. He's not running the Love Boat," came Tony's voice through the armor's comms.

"I know that show!" Thor interrupted. "The one with the funny man named after a garden rodent!"

"Let's not get off topic," Tony quickly replied. Rhodey smiled as he veered up and left, coming across the Hellicarrier's stern, blowing apart another Sentry with a close range Repulsor blast. Ahead of him, Falcon skimmed the blacktop of the carrier, pulling up sharply to kick a Sentry in the chin, decapitating it in the process.

"I thought off-topic was your thing, Stark," Sam said blithely.

"I have noticed he is often preoccupied with verbal witticisms," Vision interjected. Rhodey touched down on the deck, sighting the entry hatch that would lead him inside the flying fortress.

"I swear I'm going to cancel Netflix access for the whole squad, if not the whole team," Tony threatened.

"I'm on-deck," Rhodey said, watching as the suit's onboard systems updated his objective. "According to the scanner you installed, what we're looking for is not far below us. I guess it's just a bonus we get to kick some Ultron tail in the process."

"Verily, I never grow tired of crushing these metal men." Thor landed besides Rhodey, already in motion to throw Mjolnir at a cluster of advancing Sentries. His hammer crashed through the lot of them, sending them flying like so many bowling pins.

"I wish you guys would take this seriously," Tony said over the comms. "Ultron is a legitimate threat."

"You need to leave this to the professionals, Tony," Rhodey said. "We have it under control. There is nothing here that we haven't seen before."

"Oh crap," Tony uttered. Rhodey didn't even get the opportunity to ask what Tony was upset about before the ground under his feet shuddered. The War Machine jets flared to life, lifting Rhodey to safety as the ground erupted underneath them. Thor was thrown back and over the side of the deck. Thankfully, his hammer had circled around the ship, coming up from underneath to meet him on the way down, and preventing him from an uncontrolled freefall.

Falcon circled closer to Rhodey, who was watching as the deck on the front of the Helicarrier was breached, giant metal hands rending the machined steel like tinfoil. Climbing out of the hole was a massive beast of a robot, easily twice the size of the Ironman Hulkbuster Armor, with four arms hanging at the ready and a pair of massive, independently targeted guns sprouting from its back.

"Nothing we haven't seen before? Why did you say that?" Falcon asked. "You never say that!"

"I was just being confident," Rhodey replied. "What's wrong with being confident?"

"Avengers!" roared the head atop the massive mechanical form, unmistakably shaped in the Ultron aesthetic. As several of the weapons began to hum with power, he issued another, more menacing digital growl. "Get off my ship."

"Go then, confident one," Thor goaded Rhodey. "I believe he wishes to have words with thee."

\--

"Team Rhodes Warrior are in target proximity, how are you doing Black Eyes?" Tony asked into the comms before quietly complaining aloud, "I am never letting them pick their own team names again."

"Well, we haven't been detected yet," Hawkeye whispered back quietly, "but we've got to see what insurance AIM is carrying, because based on numbers alone they clearly have an excellent benefits package. I haven't seen so many yellow hazmat suits since the last time Natasha tried cooking."

"Not funny, Clint," Widow retorted coldly.

"Neither was that casserole. It was a casserole wasn't it? It literally could have been anything below the blackened outer shell," Hawkeye responded.

"Please tell me you've found something," Tony interrupted.

"The scanner has spiked a few times," Black Panther replied. "I assume that means they have not completed an extractor, but are still assembling and testing it."

"Would be nice to know for certain," Tony said.

"We'll find it," Natasha replied calmly.

"We need as much of it in once piece as possible," Tony emphasized. "Whatever modifications were put into the design after the plans were stolen from T'Challa, we need to be able to examine. That could be the key to getting Steve and Bruce back intact."

"We have three teams in the field," Ant-Man chimed in. "Even if we don't find it..."

"You four are the most likely to recover something intact," Tony interrupted.

"Even if we have to beat up every egghead in the place?" Hawkeye asked.

"Look, you're a stealth team," Tony emphasized. "If I wanted eggheads beaten up, I would have had Carol's team come knocking at the front door, or Rhodey's."

"He does have a point," agreed Scott. "Thankfully most of these guys are blissfully unaware of our presence."

Tony watched the digital representation of the team work through the 3-D model of the AIM base displayed above his work surface. Black Widow and Hawkeye were working from the top down, while Ant-Man and Black Panther had come in from the ground up, working from the opposite side.

"Well, that's not what we're looking for, but it's definitely a problem, I'd say," Tony heard Clint say.

"What do you see?" T'Challa asked.

"All egg, all head and thoroughly unpleasant," Clint replied.

"It's MODOK," Widow verified.

"That can't be good," Tony said.

"Then this will be decidedly less pleasant," Tony heard T'Challa say. "I have found the extractor. It is currently not running because it looks as if enough Vibranium was recovered already."

"Recovered for what?"

"A new Adaptoid," T'Challa replied coldly. "The first of many by the look of things."

"What was that about breaking some eggheads, Stark?" Clint chided.

\--

"Carol, what's your status?"

Captain Marvel didn't reply directly, as she was unleashing a barrage of photon blasts before taking to the sky to chase after the retreating Moonstone.

"Carol?"

"I'm not replying to anything other than our team name," Carol said flatly, avoiding a barrage of projectiles launched by the spinning green tornado that was Whirlwind all the while tracking Moonstone in order to keep her from maneuvering into a blind spot. She heard Tony grumble over the mic.

"Say again, Avengers Actual," Carol said, grinning madly.

"Team ABBA report," Tony finally repeated, loud and slow. "Did you hear that, Colonel Danvers?"

"Copy, Avengers Actual. Alpha Bravo Bravo Alpha Squad reporting," Carol replied.

"You can just say ABBA," Stark opined.

"The tracker lead us to an abandoned contract security base, that turned out to be not so abandoned," Carol reported. "We are currently engaging what appears to be the latest iteration of the Masters of Evil. Over."

"Verily, they do present many facets of Evil," Hercules interjected after catching a rather large stone thrown by Goliath. He returned it with flare, making the giant jerk away before he caught the rock with his face.

"Evil, yes... Masters? That's certainly up for argument," added She-Hulk, picking herself up off the ground after successfully drop-kicking Titania through a nearby concrete wall.

"We outnumber them! They will fall!" Baron Zemo, directing his team from a nearby platform took a moment from ranting to fire pulses of energy from a large rifle. They connected with the back of Wonder Man, who had been grappling with Tiger Shark. Crying out in pain from the disruption to his ionic energies, Simon dropped his guard and took a hit from the muscled man-shark that sent him flying.

"I'm going to have to call you back, Tony," Captain Marvel said, attempting to throw a stray photon blast or two at Zemo to either incapacitate or at least disorient him.

"Oh, so it's Tony now... Look, just try to keep the machine in one piece," Stark directed.

"We'll keep your precious widget intact, shellhead," She-Hulk piped in.

"What if it merely accidentally gets destroyed?" Hercules asked.

"Not helping," replied Stark. "Colonel... Captain... Carol! Securing the machine is priority."

"Ten-four Actual. The machine is priority," Carol confirmed, "but I'm not going to let these guys run to cause trouble later if we can help it. ABBA out."

\--

Tony pushed back on the holographic representation of the third team's collective communications signals. It shrank slightly, sliding back with the other two data feeds on his desktop, each displaying as much up-to-date information as possible. The rest of the air in front of him was spent on other tasks: isolating more spots were the dimensional vibranium extractor might be located, crawling the wider Net for related information or communications and a few models of an adapter that could tune one of Reed's Negative Zone gates into other dimensional locations. F.R.I.D.A.Y. was already running simulations based on the few few dozen ideas he'd brainstormed with the braintrust that had shared their expertise with him.

"Perhaps I should start running numbers on who is currently free from incarceration from the finest of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s prisons in order to predict who has the time, money and ability to be interested in this tech," Tony said out loud to himself. "Actually, I think that's a fine idea."

"F.R.I.D.A.Y., spin up a couple more servers to dedicate to that task," Tony instructed.

"Right away, boss," replied his artificial assistant. "Just so you know, Doctors Pym and McCoy have updated the working share location with more data."

"Can you add that to our existing models or do I need to get in there personally?"

"I'll do my best, boss."

"Let me know if you have any problems," Tony said, moving from his desk to the refrigerator in the kitchenette corner of his workshop. He fished out one of the Arc Energy Drinks that he was quite fond of, despite the fact that they were not as much of a commercial success as he'd hoped. "Why isn't there a sandwich in here?"

"Shall I have the kitchen upstairs prepare you one, sir?" F.R.I.D.A.Y. asked.

"Sure. Just make sure it's lean." Tony paused for a moment. He literally couldn't remember the last thing he'd eaten, or when that had been. "Never mind that. Extra mayo. I probably need the calories."

"I'll have them bring it down to you, boss."

"Thank you, F.R.I.D.A.Y.," said Tony. He mused for a moment while sipping the cold can of Arc. "What're the two of you eating out there, old man? Do they have an early bird senior buffet in whatever forsaken dimension you're trapped in?"

\--

"Do you think this is made from those hippigs?" Bruce asked.

"I think I'm too hungry to care," Steve replied, bringing the bowl up to his lips and taking a long swallow of the broth. It was rich, refreshing and put a warmth in his stomach that insulated him against the cool, evening air. Their hosts raised their voices in delight at Steve's positive reaction and encouraged Bruce to join him. The scientist attempted to use the eating implement to taste the broth. It was like large reed with a slight depression at one end, a sort of wild wide spoon that he had trouble with in his hands, but managed to get some of the soup to his lips.

"Wow. That's remarkably good," Bruce confessed, attempting another clumsy attempt or two with his spoon before forsaking altogether and going right for the bowl as Steve had done.

"Thank you, very much," Steve said to Mouken, the appointed leader of the village that the riders had brought Steve and Bruce to.

"You're quite welcome. It is not often that the Pahj'Uran get pleasant visitors," Mouken said, spreading his arm out wide to the other villagers assembled around the main fire. He had the air of authority about him and it was clear the other Pahj'Uran treated him with respect. Two of them were currently weaving more of the colored decorations into his wild mane of white, unbraided hair.

"But you have received visitors before?" Bruce asked. "I can only assume English is not your native language."

"English? Ah... the language of the Bright Travellers. No, it is not. But we learn it out of respect for them," Mouken said.

"The Bright Travellers?" Steve asked.

"That is their name from our legends. They each have had names of their own," Jevan spoke up. Jevan had been the fox-rider that greeted them at the grazing land. "It is from them that we have learned much about medicine and ... what did they call it?"

"Science," answered Hoosta, one of the other fox-riders, who had stayed with the hippigs as Jevan and Vercelt had met with Bruce and Steve. All three of them sat around the main fire with Mouken. Steve noticed there were other groups with other fires, but Mouken's was the largest. The whole tribe itself seemed just over a hundred members. He would have to talk with Bruce later about tribal dynamics. Even though we was not a Doctor of Xeno-Anthropology, he seemed to have better educated guesses about these things than Steve did.

Steve did recognize personal power dynamics, though, and no one seemed to be outright afraid of Mouken or those around his fire, which seemed to lead to the conclusion that they didn't rule by fear. Mouken didn't seem wary, either, but confident in himself and his tribe.

"Oh?" Bruce's attention was drawn by the mention of science. "Might I ask what they were teaching?"

"Later, perhaps," Mouken said, intercepting any stray responses that his tribemates might have offered up. "We would like to know more of you."

"What else would you like to know?" Steve asked. They had already given out names and a condensed version of the events that had led them to encountering the Pahj'Uran.

"Until now, we had assumed all the Travellers hailed from the same place. It seems we were wrong," Mouken said. "Is it common to find yourself somewhere else? Should we worry that we may fall into a pit to another place?

"We've been falling backwards into this kind of thing for a while," Bruce said. "But it's not as common as we make it sound. Normally it takes a concerted amount of effort for such a thing."

"Interesting," Mouken said, pulling at one of his earlobes, an unconscious habit, it seemed. "And in all of these other places, the way you look, like that of the Bright Travellers... it is the same?"

"No," Steve said. "There is a diversity of life. Not everyone looks like us."

"It is fezz'esh'sha..." Mouken looked to Hoosta who offered the word 'coincidence' to her leader. "It is coincidence that you traveled with your male pair bond as well?"

"Pair bond? You mean friendship?" Steve asked.

"Friendship is mutual respect. We understand that concept. Pair bond is for pleasure or childmaking," Mouken explained.

Bruce nearly spit his broth out.

"We are not pair bonded," Steve explained, feeling his face flush slightly.

"This is odd. We have offended you?" Mouken asked. "The Bright Travellers pair bond with each other. Your similar appearance led us to the wrong conclusion."

"We are not offended," Steve answered. "Where we are from, male pair bonding is known. It is not uncommon or offensive... It is just that we are not pair bonded."

"It is just fezz'esh'sha," Steve explained, using the Pahj'Uran word for coincidence, "that we both travelled together. It was an accident that we travelled at all."

"This is odd, but I understand," Mouken said. "I think of you like the Bright Travellers because you look like them. This is not how you are, though."

Mouken stood up from his chair, giving his large orange hands several strong claps. The noise around the camp settled and Steve noticed several other groups looking over to him.

"My people," Mouken announced in a loud voice. "The evening settles. It is now the time for rest before we rise tomorrow. Please give our guests respect and courtesy for their stay tonight." In unison, the tribe clapped twice in acknowledgement.

"Hoosta will show you to your sleeping place," Mouken said. "We will talk more in the light, once I have thought of these things."

"Thank you." Bruce and Steve answered almost simultaneously. The tall tribal leader left his place at the fire and walked out of the ring of light, his attendants following just behind them.

"I think he likes you," Jevan said, once Mouken had vanished completely.

"It is always hard to tell," said Hoosta, which elicited a nod from the quiet Vercelt.

"How often do you have visitors? The Bright Travellers?" Bruce asked.

"We should save such conversations until tomorrow," Hoosta replied. "Mouken will want to be a part of them."

"Yes, sorry, of course," Bruce replied nervously. Steve could tell he was afraid of offending. To be fair, Steve was thankful their good luck had lasted this far and was also reluctant to push it at the moment.

"Finish your meal and we will take you to shelter," Jevan said.

"May we ask where that is?"

"You may stay in the place we keep for the Bright Travellers," Jevan answered.

"They do not visit often, and even when they do it is not always for a length of time," Hoosta added. Vercelt grunted slightly, his goldenrod brow knitted in concern.

"Pardon," Hoota explained. "After Mouken retires for the night, we do not speak in the open. It is out of respect for him."

"Of course," Steve said. He exchanged a look with Bruce and the two of them sat quietly while they finished their stew. Afterwards, the three fox-riders led the two of them to one of the dwellings of the village. They were mostly made of wooden supports and clay bricks, with canvas backed leather roofs slanted towards the rear. In general, they were not incredibly large, but the one Bruce and Steve were shown appeared to be slightly larger than the others.

Jevan stopped in front of the front door, a large, brightly painted canvas stretched over a wooden frame. He opened it and motioned to the inside. Clearly this was meant for the two of them. Then, after nodding, the fox-riders left quietly.

The building was bare save for a large sleeping pallet, kept off the floor by a wooden frame, much like a futon. There were a stack of blankets at the end.

"Looks like we'll be bunking here tonight," Steve said.

"It's definitely... cozy," Bruce confessed eventually. "I hope you don't snore."

"That's no fair," Steve laughed quietly. "You know I do."

\--

"What again am I looking for?"

Black Panther performed a flawless backward axle, carrying him just above the throwing blades that were supposed to be representations of his own vibranium knives. It occurred to him as he landed gracefully that the blades might actually be vibranium, at least partially so now that the Adaptoid had been reengineered with vibranium components.

Thankfully the Adaptoid could only mimic what he could see, allowing T'Challa to distract the android while Ant-Man crept, quite literally, under the android's skin and inside the active but incomplete model undetected. Although it was not one hundred percent finished, it was still a threat, one that needed to be contained and dismantled.

"I was led to believe you were quite technically astute, Mr. Lang," T'Challa said over his comms.

"I was just concerned that I would break something that would cause a deadly explosion. What powers these things, anyway?" Scott asked.

"I think it runs off of AIM's collective frustration on being beat all the time," Clint answered before T'Challa could. The Black Panther lunged to pit his claws against the Adaptoid's midsection, but was deflected by a vibranium weave in the android's skin.

"Nothing exotic, I can assure you, Mr. Lang," T'Challa said, parrying aside moves the Adaptoid had mimicked from his own fighting style. Thankfully, only one of them had been complete enough to be activated. The rest were still in various stages of assembly, mostly likely due to the new components that had to be crafted carefully out of the vibranium AIM had extracted from some other dimension.

"Right, I'm going to just start yanking wires, then," Scott replied.

"Panther, we are trying to keep AIM security forces from reaching your position, but we are out manned and under heavy fire from MODOK," Black Widow relayed calmly.

"Do your best, Widow, but do not let yourself or Hawkeye be trapped," Panther advised.

"This whole base is starting lockdown procedures," Clint said. "We're going to have a whole lot less places to run very shortly."

The Adaptoid crumpled over, the momentum of an attack at the time of his deactivation sent it into a tangled heap on the floor, sliding a few feet away in the process. Short seconds afterwards, Scott was returning to his normal size a few feet away. T'Challa had his mind on other things at the moment, though and was moving to the far end of the lab, where there was an automatic system slowly shaping new parts from raw materials. Just beside it was a locked door. He assumed the extractor would be somewhere beyond.

"Ant-Man, can you get the door open for me, quickly?" Panther asked.

"What? Oh, sure. On it!" Scott said, jogging towards the panel one minute and then launching himself forward the next, shrinking simultaneously and disappearing from view once again. While Ant-Man was working on that, T'Challa moved over to one of the unfinished Adaptoids and started removing several components before doing the same with the next partially completed androids. He was in the process of pulling apart these components when Scott reappeared, the previously locked door sliding open behind him.

"Grab these things here and follow me," T'Challa said, both of his hands already full.

"Okay then," Ant-Man replied, scooping the bits up as best possible and hurrying after Black Panther, who was already through the door.

"The Adaptoid is down, but the situation is not contained," Panther relayed over the comms. The short hall emptied into a larger room. At the far end, a large metal platform stood. Panther recognized the design from his stolen blueprints. It had been modified, but still retained the basic structure and parts.

"What do you intend to do?" Widow asked.

"And how much more time do you need?" Hawkeye quickly added. "I'm running out of pointy things."

"Clint, you keep that box I gave you?" Scott asked.

"Yeah, I tucked it away, why?"

"Put it on the ground and depress the blue button for the count of five."

"I'm kind of busy. This had better be worth it," Clint grumbled.

"It'll be worth it," Scott said as an aside to Panther.

"Ok, that's a cute trick. Little box is now a big box filled with arrows," Clint replied.

"Isn't that great?" Scott said, clearly very excited.

"How am I supposed to haul a huge freakin' box of arrows around with me? Does this thing shrink back down?"

"You know," Scott said, "I probably should have worked out that little detail in advance."

"And I thought Stark had hair-brained ideas," Hawkeye grumbled.

"Mr. Lang, I need your assistance here," Panther said, pulling the conversation back to the task he was working on. Scott came closer, holding out the parts he'd gathered. Panther had already pulled off several sections of paneling and was working on rewiring existing pieces or wiring in his new scavenged parts.

"Hawkeye, Widow, I am currently rewiring the Vibranium extractor. In short order it will begin a planned meltdown, which will shunt it and roughly anything within a thousand feet in all directions around it into several different dimensional coordinates, effectively annihilating anything caught in the effect," Panther explained calmly.

"Hey, WE'RE within that effect," Scott pointed out.

"Not for long," Panther said, standing up and sprinting towards the door back to the Adaptoid lab, which would also be caught in the blast. As Scott cleared the door he had hacked open, two of T'Challa's throwing blades pierced the control panel, causing the door to cycle into lockdown mode, bolting it shut.

"Having a quarter of the complex's structural supports suddenly go missing will do no favors for the building's integrity, so I suppose that's our cue to leave then," Widow said.

"You think a giant box half filled with explosive tipped arrows is a good going away present?" Clint chuckled.

"Evacuate, Avengers. Our job here is done," Panther said solemnly, vaulting over obstacles to get them back out the way they had come in.

"Man, Stark's going to be pissed we went shopping but didn't get him anything," Clint said. He was laughing as he triggered a fire alarm on the way out, doing what he could to save even the evil eggheads from having their component molecules separated and scattered over a hundred or so different dimensions.

\--

"Vision, what's your position?" Rhodey asked rather sharply over the comms. He then rolled out of the way of a volley of short range missiles, firing a series of countermeasures from his hip-pods just to be on the safe side.

"I have found the machine components," Vision replied.

"But?"

"Pardon, Colonel?" Vision asked.

"There's usually a 'but' involved with whatever we do. 'Yes I found the parts, but it's being guarded by the Abomination or something," Rhodey said.

"No, there is currently no issue at my location," Vision replied.

Rhodey watched as Thor lit up the giant Ultron's face with an impressive array of lightning bolts.

"I seriously need more firepower," Falcon said, allowing his machine pistols to retract as he skimmed across the deck of the helicarrier, as far away from Ultron and the hole he'd made in the hardtop. He dove into one of the hanger sections and disappeared.

"Ok, then just grab the parts and do that ghost thing you do and get them out of the belly of the carrier," said Rhodey.

"My density manipulation powers do not extend to anything outside my body," Vision responded calmly. "I shall have to leave in a more conventional fashion."

The War Machine armor fired a cascade of HE rounds towards the feet of the giant Ultron, hoping to put him off balance. Thor saw his intent and circled around to the robot's opposite side, streaking towards Ultron at full speed, Mjolnir leading the charge, battering into the robot's head.

The tactic worked better than he thought it would. The giant frame was a bit less agile than Ultron's smaller frames and was destabilized by the coordinated impacts. Shots went far off target, which was good for Rhodey, since he did not catch a rather massive plasma blast. Unfortunately, the helicarrier's forward starboard engine managed to be the recipient, exploding with spectacular flair.

The deck lurched beneath him and his armor managed to bring him up and stabilized a few feet above it.

"Vision, you need to get that thing out of there fast!"

"I felt the tremor, even here in the belly of the helicarrier, Colonel. Has the situation changed drastically?" Vision replied.

"We'll see if you care more about this ship or the vulnerable flesh below it!" Ultron ranted, the giant machine firing off a fusillade of ordinance into the air while the helicarrier yawed and dipped, apparently of it's own accord.

"It's headed down," War Machine said. "Preliminary trajectory puts it in the middle of Las Vegas. We can't let that happen, team!"

"Colonel, there are over 100 discrete connections I will have to terminate in order to remove the machinery from this room," Vision said. "I do not think I will have enough time to do that unless you can stabilize the aircraft."

The giant Ultron bent over, gripping the deck with many of its powerful limbs. Thrusters flared all over the massive frame, adding its own thrust to the remaining propulsion of the final three helicarrier engines.

"What of Ultron?" Thor asked, watching as the remaining Ultron sentinels started flying off in different directions.

"We can't do everything at once," Rhodey said. "So we'll have to concentrate on the ship."

"I think I might have something that can help," Falcon chimed in, still unseen somewhere in the depths of the plummeting helicarrier's hanger. "A lot of explosives... like all of them."

"Vision, Thor, do what you can to slow the ship or push it off course," Rhodey said, "I'm going to help Sam see if we can blow this thing up before it gets any closer to the city."

"Acknowledged," replied Vision.

"Aye," Thor answered with enthusiastic determination. "We shall NOT fail!"

\--

"Well, maybe they wouldn't have to blow it up if you hadn't let Ultron have it in the first place, Phil," Tony shot back over the video link.

"Let's not get into a reductive argument, Mr. Stark," S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Phil Coulson replied calmly. "Just make sure you have your people not abandon that wreckage before my team can get out there to secure the crash site, wherever Colonel Rhodes decides to drop it."

"I'll make sure to pass that along, Director," Tony said, just before the call was terminated. "I think I liked him better when he was just an Agent... or dead. I can't decide."

He stepped away from his desk, and rubbed his eyes as he went over the informational feeds for the hundredth time or more. New targets had been given space in the grand sprawl. The predictive server had spit up new names, so he'd done what he could to pull together new teams to handle them.

Dr. Octopus had vandalized a Stark Tech research lab outside of Queens, taking parts that could theoretically be used to construct an extractor. He'd been able to get a hold of Moon Knight, Daredevil and Spider-Man, sending them off on Ock's trail.

Reed had volunteered the Human Torch and the Thing to track down the Wizard, who was calculated to have a high probability of attempting to use Panther's stolen technology.

Tony also had Luke Cage and his friend Danny Rand on retainer to check out things at Hammer Industries, which might be a likely target for the mechanical genius Machinesmith. The last thing Tony needed was more nigh-invulnerable robots running amok.

He'd even hedged his bet on long shots like a recently spotted Stilt-Man. As absurd as it might seem, he had an adamantium stilt suit at one point. Tony had sent Squirrel Girl to follow up on that, hoping that he hadn't been trying to make vibranium stilt units.

"Seriously, I think I might be losing it at this point," he said, considering that even Stilt-Man might be part of the greater conspiracy.

He was about to reach out to contact the last of the original three teams he'd fielded when the notification on his workbench lit up.

Bracing himself for the worst news, Tony brought up the signal feed from Carol's team.

\--

"Go ahead, Avengers Actual," Carol said, wrapping another length of cable around Baron Helmut Zemo. She twisted the two ends of the braided steel together like a giant twist-tie, giving the leader of the Masters of Evil a snug restraint.

"Was I right to take a chance on you, Team ABBA?" Tony asked.

"The Masters have been neutralized for the moment," she replied. "We have all of them save Moonstone in custody."

"And the device?"

"Winner takes it all. We have secured T'Challa's runaway science project," she said.

"But?" Tony asked.

"But what?"

"I was just waiting for you to tell me about the inevitable setback that would tarnish our otherwise happy moment," Tony explained.

"No problems here," She-Hulk chimed in. She was sitting on top of an unconscious Whirlwind, who was stacked on top of an unconscious Goliath. Next to her, Hercules used a steel girder bent in the shape of a U around Tiger Shark to staple him to the pavement. "We're Avengers, right? We get it done."

"Yes, well there's certainly plenty of evidence to contradict that statement, Jennifer, but we'll leave it be for now," Tony said. "I'll let S.H.I.E.L.D. know things are in hand. I'm sure they'll be there annoyingly quick. I'm also going to dispatch a suit on a Quinjet to your location. I'll control it remotely to make sure the device is properly dismantled and packed for return to our upstate facility.

"I'm counting on you to make sure nothing happens to it until then," Tony emphasized over the comms.

"Roger that, Avengers Actual. ABBA will keep the LZ secured for your travelling puppet show," Carol replied. She sighed as Tony went back to micromanaging everything else.

"You think that hunk of junk will actually be able to find Steve and Bruce?" Wonder Man asked.

"I don't know, Simon," Captain Marvel replied honestly. "But I do know that Avengers are not very good at resting on their laurels. If this doesn't find them, you can bet we'll find some other way to do it."

"Verily, thou speakest the truth," Hercules said, his face lit by a wide smile and his arm holding aloft a golden flagon into the air, toasting Carol's conviction.

"Where did you even find that around here?" She-Hulk asked.

"The Son of Zeus is nothing if not resourceful," Hercules grinned.

\--

Steve remembered being slightly cold, at least he had been when Bruce and he had first climbed into the tiny bed, sharing the rough spun blankets and a straw mattress between them.

But with Bruce's arm wrapped around him and his back pressed against the scientist's chest, Steve felt more than warm... he felt safe. It was all that his sleepy mind could understand in those first few minutes of being awake and he was not eager to throw it away. Steve listened to the rhythmic breathing, felt the rise and fall of Banner's chest and felt a sense of serene calm as he lay there, his eyes adjusting to the morning light that tried to assert its presence through the cracks of the hut that the two of them shared.

He felt Bruce's warm breath against his neck and closed his eyes, trying not to think about the progression of time, any thing that would disturb this moment and make it become the inevitable moment after. For now he wanted to remain here, removed from the pressing problems of their current reality and the one that seemed even further behind them. He knew this fragile construction would be fleeting, but for now, it was enough.

Steve had almost drifted back to sleep when he felt Bruce stir. Rather than try to explain himself, he took the opportunity to let out a big yawn and feign waking up himself.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Bruce said, moving his arm and shuffling awkwardly away from Steve. Unfortunately the bed and the blanket were barely big enough for them when they were still. The awkward repositioning threatened to tip them off on opposite sides. Steve couldn't tell if his friend was embarrassed or upset but it was clear he did not want to look as if he was condoning the position that he'd adopted during their unconscious hours.

"No need to apologize," Steve rattled off, pulling himself up to a sitting position facing away from Bruce. "Just a human instinct to keep warm."

"Right," Bruce replied. "I certainly didn't mean..."

"I know you didn't," Steve answered more quickly than he meant to. "It's a small bed. It was bound to be awkward."

"Right," Bruce said, also sitting up on his side of the bed, facing away from his teammate. What followed was an uncomfortable silence that seemed to last longer than either of them expected. It ended abruptly with a sharp rap on the wooden frame at the entrance of the hut.

"Pardon, guests, but we are gathering for our morning meal," came a friendly voice from the other side.

"We'll be right out," Steve replied. Without speaking further, the two of them managed to avoid direct eye contact with each other as they left the hut that had been provided for them.

The Pahj'Uran were grouped once more around their cooking fires. Hoosta had been the one to get the two displaced Avengers, offering them another spot around Mouken's cooking fire, despite the fact that the tribal leader, himself, was missing. Jevan handed out platters already filled with food: thick slices of a heavy grain bread topped by what looked to be a native honey. There was also something that looked like a cross between pumpkin and an avacado, roughly larger than the size of the latter. It was split open at the top, the sections easily removable and filled with a firm, but succulent smelling pulp interior.

"Careful, the Oovren is still hot," Vercelt said as he pulled apart his fruit, releasing the steam inside. While they cooled, he started in on the bread.

"Thank you," Steve said as he sat down in the circle. Bruce sat next to him, though intentionally not too close, Steve noticed. Certain boundaries must be clearly maintained, he thought to himself as he began to eat. There was some chatter between the hippig herders in their native language, but it seemed to be about mundane things, not commentary about their visitors at all. It was a strange sensation to go from the warm closeness he felt inside the hut to the open distance he felt on the edge of the fire circle.

He looked over to Bruce several times over the course of the meal, but neither one of them could find a conversation to begin. Steve shelved the thought of it for the time being, wondering what their next goal should be. The Pahj'Uran seemed friendly enough, but there was still much to understand and they were too vulnerable not knowing more about their hosts or this world.

Steve knew they needed maps and information more than anything else. They certainly were in no position to demand anything, but he was working from the assumption that they would need to be part of their own rescue effort. If nothing else, a way to set up a means for the Tony and the others to confirm their location, even if they couldn't use that means to get back on their own. Since he was no scientist, he would need Bruce for that. Feeling awkward about a night together in a cramped bed would do neither of them any good, so he swallowed his pride along with the last bites of his breakfast and turned to speak to Bruce.

"Look, Banner, as nice as this has been, we still have important work to do and I..."

Bruce was looking at him, his eyes wide. No. Bruce was looking past him. Steve followed his gaze and saw a small crowd gathering at the opposite end of the camp.

"More guests?"

"Well, they're certainly excited about something," Bruce said, putting his plate aside. Jevan, Hoosta and Vercelt were already on their feet as well, listening to the crowd. Mouken had become visible at the edge of the crowd, leading two men who were clearly not natives.

"The Bright Travellers are here!" Hoosta said with great excitement.

"Come, friends, this is most fortunate," Jevan said, urging Steve and Bruce to follow them as they moved to meet Mouken and the crowd of villagers half-way. Exchanging a quick glance, Steve and Bruce followed after them, watching as other Pahj'Uran came to the center of town to meet the clearly famous Bright Travellers that they'd heard so much about.

"We are blessed to have two sets of Travellers here in our village!" Hoosta translated as Mouken proudly proclaimed loudly in their own language.

Steve was able to get a good look at the others as they all closed into the center of the village.

Two men of average build, one slightly taller than the other. Despite what Steve expected, these two were dressed in almost Victorian era suits, though cut for travel. The smaller one wore glasses and carried with him an almost overfull knapsack. He was jotting down notes with a pencil into a small book as they walked, his attention clearly diverted by the slightest new distraction. The taller one appeared almost unencumbered, though clearly better dressed than his companion, a gold watch chain tucked into his bright green tailored vest. He also boasted a holstered sidearm on his right leg and large knife on his left.

"They look incredibly familiar for some reason," Bruce said. Steve nodded in agreement.

"Hullo there!" the taller one said. He had a jovial disposition and a good natured grin on his face as he approached the two of them. "A pleasure to meet you!"

"Why does that voice sound familiar?" Bruce asked.

"Hi there," Steve said. "I'm sure we both have questions."

"Indeed," the taller one said, "but let us begin with introductions first."

"Captain Steve Rogers and my companion Doctor Bruce Banner," Steve said.

"A fellow doctor? Excellent! This is my husband, Doctor Reid Richerds," the tall one began. When the bespeckled smaller man looked up from his book, Steve recognized him instantly. It was most certainly Reed, or a version of him at least.

"...and I am Baron of Latveria, Viktor Von Doome," the taller man said.

Steve looked to Bruce, who was staring at the two new arrivals, one hand cuffed over his mouth, his eyes wide open.

"You'll have to pardon Dr. Banner," Steve said. "He's just very... surprised to see you."

"...together," Bruce managed to choke out.

Steve couldn't disagree with that.


End file.
